Finishing the paperwork that establishes your trust in Illinois can be a satisfying feeling. You likely feel that you have ensured your children or any heirs you have designated will receive their inheritance. However, the fact is you have to maintain your trust to make sure it functions as you intend. Simply leaving your trust alone is a mistake. In fact, your trust may not even pay out to its beneficiaries if you neglect it.
Per CNBC, sometimes a trust creator will set up a trust but will not fill the trust with the intended assets. Some trusts are actually not funded because the trust creator simply forgets to perform this action. To ensure that the trust is actually funded, trust creators need to retitle their accounts in their name of their trust. This can be performed with the assistance of a financial planner.
People may also use trusts to set up guardians for their children in the event the parents pass away and the children need someone to care for them. At the time, a person might seem to be perfect to be a guardian. The individual may have a strong income and a stable home life. However, over time your prospective guardian may end up destitute or abusing drugs or alcohol. Under such circumstances, you would want to change your guardianship designation to someone else.
Life can also change in many other ways. Since you created your trust, you may have had more children. Your children may have grown up and established new careers. You might have gotten divorced and remarried. Perhaps you acquired stepchildren from the new spouse. All of these circumstances and more may require you to revisit your trust.
Since estate planning needs will be different from person to person, you should not consider this article as legal advice. It is only intended to inform readers on estate planning topics.